In the body of Christ, God expects conformity, not a conformity to rules and regulations out of fear. Not a conformity to rules and regulations out of legalistic pride. But a conformity to righteousness out of deep love and affection for Jesus Christ. Thanks for tuning in to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
It's one of the most basic commands in Scripture. Christians need to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. The question is, what does that walk look like? How do you know if you're pleasing the Lord with how you live day to day? And when you struggle in the fight with temptation, when sin frustrates you and you stumble in your Christian walk, what can you do to stand firm?
John MacArthur's current study is answering important questions like those. It's called Walk Worthy, a practical look at the basic steps you need to take in order to live a life that honors Christ.
So now here's John with today's lesson. Take your Bible and let's look together at the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4. When a person joins a certain organization or a certain society, He obligates himself to live or to act in accord with the standards of that society. He obligates himself to function according to the aims and the objectives and the goals and the drives and the purposes of that society to which he attaches himself.
It can be illustrated in many ways. As an American citizen, a person who chooses to live in the United States of America, you obligate yourself to abide by the principles, the standards, and the laws that govern this society. As a person who is permitted to work in the place where you work, whatever place that is, a business or a plant. A shop. an office, a school, whatever it is where you work, you work there on the premise that you conform yourself and cooperate with the standards and the goals and the objectives and the principles that are a part of that particular organization.
That's the way human society is made. And if you choose not to cooperate and if you fall out of the line of conformity, you will lose your place within the framework of that organization. If a person fails to become what that society feels is necessary, if he fails to fulfill its purposes and aims, he becomes a hindrance to that society and is dismissed from it, set aside. It can be seen, for example, in. Our own situation in government.
If you do not conform to the standards of the government, the laws the government has set down, you will be taken out of the society and you will be incarcerated somewhere where you will no longer be able to hinder the ongoing of the function of society. That's just standard fare. I can't tell you how many lectures I've heard from coaches through the years in athletics that have said, look, if you're not going to do it our way, then get off the team.
Now that's a pretty standard approach to anything that we align ourselves with.
Now this can become so binding on people that it's amazing what they will do to conform. Everybody wants to be a part of the team. That's just part of the human desire to belong and to gain some acceptance and a sense of identity. And it's amazing how binding it becomes. The derive in the heart of a man is.
Very strong, and of a woman to belong, to be a part of something. And in the world, it amazes me that when people identify, they lock in and they'll do anything to conform. They want to abide by the principles, they want to be what they need to be, they want to get that acceptance. And you know what happens? When you translate that into the church, something goes wrong.
You get tons of people who come. And a lot of people who want the blessing and the rights and the privileges and the honors, but somewhere along the line, they never make the commitment to conform to the standards. It doesn't seem to be nearly as binding. And maybe it's because in all of the world's things, Satan is in there holding it together. But in the church, he's there trying to rip it apart, and it's tough to stick with it.
But you know, the standard isn't any different. When you come to Jesus Christ, you enter his church, the body, you receive his salvation, he gives you all the rights and honors and privileges that come with being a Christian. And then he says, I want you to conform to my standards, doesn't he? He says, if you're not going to conform and cooperate with what the church is doing, then you're better off to be out. In fact, sometimes the Lord puts people out on his own.
And he said to the Corinthians, Because of the way you have acted within the church, some of you are weak, some of you are sick, and some of you have died. And in 1 John chapter 5, he says, There is even a sin unto death, where the Lord literally excommunicates a believer, not losing salvation, but being put out of the church fellowship because they are more of a hindrance than a help. Listen, beloved, if people can join athletic teams and businesses and And conform with such rigid conformity, if people can be so fearful of being unsynagogued by the Jewish superstructure of their day that they literally damn their own souls and blind their eyes to the reality of the Son of God, if people can make those kinds of commitments to things that don't matter, do you imagine that we as Christians can make a high-level kind of commitment to walk in the fashion that God has asked us to walk within the framework of His own beloved church? I think we should, don't you? I think that's what Paul is calling us to do in the last three chapters of Ephesians.
In the body of Christ, God expects conformity. Not a conformity to rules and regulations out of fear. Not a conformity to rules and regulations out of legalistic pride. But a conformity to righteousness out of deep love and affection for Jesus Christ. But nonetheless, conformity.
I want to do what God wants me to do. I want to be what God wants me to be because of all that He has done. For me, I want to walk worthy. I want to be a worthy son, a worthy child. A believer calls himself a child of God.
A believer has joined God's family, belongs to the Heavenly Father, and that says something about how he ought to live. If I am my father's child, then I will honor my father. A sad failure in our commitment. It is indeed not to live up to such An identity?
Now, beloved, you need to know this. This is a constant principle of the New Testament. It's everywhere. Basic. to teaching principles for living.
We are to walk worthy of our calling. We know what he's done for us. We know who we are. We know the principles. We are to walk worthy.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 1 says this.
Furthermore, then. We beseech you, brethren. And exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk. And to please God, so you would abound more and more.
Now, do you get the point? We have taught you how to walk and oh, I exhort you now to do it. To do it. You see, first there has to be the teaching. You can't expect the believer to function on what he doesn't know.
You can't live a principle you don't know. You can't behave in a way you don't understand. And you must search the word of God to know the principles. Proverbs tells us that you'll know the wisdom of God when you desire that wisdom, like you desire gold, like people search for silver. When you search to know God's wisdom, you'll know it.
28th chapter of Job, I was reading yesterday. It describes, the first part of the chapter describes how men will work to mine out treasures. And it talks about the fact that they will go to any length conceivable to get treasure out of the ground. In fact, let me show it to you. Look at Job chapter 28.
He says here, surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they refine it. Iron is taken out of the earth and bronze is smelted out of the stone. He setteth an end to darkness and searcheth out all perfection, the stones of darkness and the shadow of death. And what Job is saying here is it's incredible that man will literally go down into the pits to find treasure, to find gold. He'll uncover the stones of darkness.
He'll go into the shadow of death. He searches out everything to find silver, to find iron, to find bronze. He talks about Verse 6: The stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. And there is a path which no fowl knows, which no bird knows, and which the falcon's eye has never seen, and the lion's whelps have never trod, nor the fierce lion passed by. In other words, this stuff, these sapphires, and diamonds and rubies and gold and silver, are hidden in places that the animals don't know, and the birds don't know, in dark places, in deep places, and man will go to find them there.
He puts forth his hand, verse 9, on the rocks and overturns the mountains by the roots. He cuts the rivers among the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds the floods from overflowing. He sets up a dam and then he pans for gold. Man will do anything.
And Job says, and when it's all said and done, you know what he never finds? He never finds the wisdom of God. And then when you come to Proverbs chapter 2, you hear the writer of Proverbs say this: When you put as much effort to know the wisdom of God as men will do to find gold and silver, then you'll know God's wisdom. And listen, until you know God's wisdom, until the basis of doctrine is there, you don't know how to live. You have to know God's wisdom.
Yeah. Back to Colossians. For a minute. Or chapter 1, verse 9. For this cause we also Since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you.
And to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will.
Now, listen, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Paul says, Oh, I want you to be filled with the knowledge of his will. That's in your mind. All wisdom, all understanding. The result, verse 10, in order that ye might walk.
What's the next word? Worthy. You see again, the worthy walk is predicated on knowledge. Being fruitful in every good work. Predicated on knowledge.
Strengthened with might, predicated on knowledge, giving thanks predicated on knowledge. That's why we teach the word of God, beloved. That's why week after week after week I teach principles of the Word of God. I don't spend a lot of time telling stories. I spend a lot of time.
Just trying to whip you into emotional frenzies. I just want to teach you the principles of the Word of God so you can live them out.
Now we could do that. We could have sanctified peptox. And I could temple out some of my oldies, but goodies. We could uh Tell you all the jokes I know and We could laugh and scratch the whole time. And we could get all traumatized emotionally.
I could tell you tear-jerking stories, and we could just really have a real emotional bath. And you know what? You'd get all emotionalized, and then 15 minutes later, you'd forget everything you ever heard. There wouldn't be any principles there. You know, pastors and teachers.
weaken the word of God. when they come to people and exhort them about duty and they've never taught them doctrine. Because they suck the motive out. They've removed the principle.
Well, I can illustrate it this way. We'll assume this. You all drive 55 miles an hour. I say we'll assume that. Why do you drive 55 miles an hour?
You don't say, well, you know, I... I was just praying about it one day. seem to be right. To just drive 55 miles an hour.
So I've just decided I'll do that. No. The reason you drive 55 miles an hour is because there is a doctrine. And that doctrine says you will drive 55 miles an hour. Your duty is predicated on that doctrine.
Around the 1st of April, you don't say to your wife, honey, let's send a large check this year to the government. They've done so much for us, the lovely parks that we enjoy. The highways upon which we take our vacation. The wonderful programs they have to provide for the needy. This government is so great.
Let's just, let's, several thousand dollars. In fact, let's borrow to do it, honey. Because I just, I feel there's something in me that wants to do this. The reason you send that in there is because there is a doctrine. that says you're going to send it.
That's one of the rules. And that's the way it is in the Christian life. You don't arbitrarily do things. And unless people know the reason, you will have a hard time getting them to make a commitment to the duty. Do you understand?
And so, what happens is, you can become a sort of a Christian cheerleader. And you get everybody in there, and you get them all committed to doing stuff, they haven't got the faintest idea why. Unless you teach them doctrine. James 3:1 says, Stop being so many teachers, for theirs is the greater condemnation. And you know what I'll be accountable for?
The Lord's only going to ask me one thing: Did you dispense to my people my truth? Isn't that right? That's all. And I just want to discharge my ministry to the full. And discharging my ministry to the full means that I must teach you the principles of the Word of God.
Now, first, I got to get you to listen, and then I got to convince you that you ought to operate on those things. That's God's calling to me. I'm not interested in getting you to conform legalistically. I'm not interested in getting you to conform emotionally. I'm not interested in intimidating you into that.
I feel that my responsibility is to give you the truth of the Word of God and to allow you the responsibility to obey it or not obey it. And I think if we just get in the pulpit and just try to whip people into emotionalism. Or we just tell them to do things all the time without giving them a theological reason for doing it. We leave them empty. And we missed the point.
Doctrine, people, is the key to Christian living. People are basically, well, we just want to love everybody and we don't want to make doctrine an issue. And then you have everyone today who comes sort of on the borderline of liberalism and saying we've got to forget theology and just set it aside and just we just have to love everybody and let's not talk about theology. We'll just all get together on the basis of love. It's a wonderful thought, it's just not biblical.
Let me show you some verses. Ephesians. You know, I've been reading a lot in the last few years about church renewal. And there's a lot of books on church renewal.
Some of them are good and helpful, and I've appreciated them very much. But in all of the talk about church renewal, it's kind of interesting. Because there's a lot of suggestions about how to get the church renewed. We've got to renew the church. And there are suggestions.
The way to renew the church is to change the structure. We've got to kick against the traces. We've got to get rid of all the old patterns, dump this, get rid of that. We've got to do it in small groups. We've got to have little groups of interaction and sharing.
We've got to have it oriented this way and we've got to do it this way. We've got to rearrange the furniture and make people face each other. And we've got to get people to spill out their problems to each other. And we've got methods and manners and solutions. And a lot of it is very kind of exterior and superficial.
Some of it is more. Deep and meaningful, but they're all suggestions of the new methodology for renewal. There's new methods for it, new ways to do it.
Well, you know something you can do that to your purple You can reorganize the church every six months for the rest of your life and never know renewal. You can change the furniture all you want. You know, the first principle of Christian education: move the chairs. You can do that as much as you want. You can reorganize and restructure and reset and change the format and the methods and the plans and the programs until you die.
And never have renewal because Ephesians 4:23 says, You are renewed in the spirit of your what? Your mind. If the church really wants renewal, it'll find renewal when it imparts to the people of God the truth of God so that their minds can know it. That's the basis of renewal. And then, frankly, it matters little how you arrange the furniture.
Or, what method you use, because you got a whole lot of renewed people, and renewed people are going to carry on the work of the Lord. in whatever framework. But notice, it is the mind that is the source of renewal. The renewal that comes to the church comes in the mind, the thinking process. That's why in Ephesians 1:17, the apostle said that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
In other words, God knows that the heart of the matter is to know His truth in your mind. We must know doctrine, beloved, before we can ever know duty. Philippians again chapter 1 verse 9. And here's a verse that I I hear a lot, but a lot of times people don't quote the whole verse. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more.
And they stopped there. They say, Oh, yes. We must love more. And more, and we've got to forget about all of these things about doctrine. But you didn't read the verse.
It says, I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that you may test things that are excellent. See? You've got to be discerning. You've got to make judgments. You've got to know doctrine and theology, or your love is less than God's love.
which is discerning. knowledgeable. makes judgments. In Colossians chapter 1. And verse 10.
He says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Being fruitful in every good work. That's the goal. How? Increasing by the knowledge of God.
The best rendering of the preposition: by the knowledge of God. As you know God, you walk worthy. As you know God, you're fruitful in every good. Work. Colossians 3.10.
Put on the new man. that is renewed in knowledge. after the image of him that created him. To know God, to know Christ, to know His Word. That's the issue.
Peter says at the end of his second epistle, chapter 3, verse 18. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Knowledge, people, knowledge. You've got to know the Word of God. You should hunger for it and you should search for it and you should seek for it as treasure, the way men will go to the pits of the earth to seek gold and silver.
Paul wanted people to be perfect, mature, complete. Colossians 1:27, he says, Christ, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man that we may present every man perfect. We want mature saints. You say that's great, Paul. Chapter 4, verse 12, Epaphroditus is praying that everybody would be perfect and complete in all the will of God.
They wanted mature, perfect, complete people. And of course, the answer came in 2 Timothy 3.16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God that the man of God may be perfect. Thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You can't do the good works without the knowledge of the Word of God.
And so, beloved, we teach you the principles. We must know the Word of God. But the church for years has not approached it that way. We've gotten all wrapped up in the follies of relationalism, and we've missed the point. We're so busy worrying about relating to each other that we don't even know what the foundation of a relationship is.
People, you can't live what you don't know, right? You can't play the game if you don't know the rules. You can't live within the framework of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and walk worthy of it unless you know the standards. We must know the word of God. Paul, bless his heart, he knew so much, and yet the great cry of his heart was, Oh, that I may know him.
Remember that, Philippians 3? And James' great cry was that I might receive the engrafted word, James 1, 21. And Peter, that we might desire the pure milk of the word, that we might grow thereby. And so it is that the standard of God. Is the basis of behavior.
Now listen, go back to Ephesians 4 and I'll close. I therefore The prisoner of the Lord beseech you. that ye walk worthy of the vocation To which You're called. Beloved. God is calling by His Spirit for you to walk worthy.
Did you get that? to walk worthy.
Now let me tell you something in closing. You know what happens when you walk worthy? Look at Hebrews chapter 11. You remember the great heroes of faith in Hebrews 11?
So wonderful.
So wonderful.
First there was Abel. In verse four. Who offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. And then there was Enoch. Why, he walked so worthy.
One day he took a walk with God, and God liked him so much, and their fellowship was so sweet, he just kept on walking, and the two of them walked right up to glory. And he never even died. And then there was Noah, and Noah walked with God for 120 years. While he built that boat. And then there was Abraham, and Abraham and Sarah, they walked with God, and they walked a worthy walk, a walk of faith.
Then there was Isaac and then it was Jacob and then it was Joseph and then it was Moses. Against the opposition and against the system, they walked with God, and theirs was a worthy walk. They lived up to what they knew. And then there was Rahab the harlot. In verse thirty-one.
And then there were a lot more. Look at verse 32. What'll I say more? From the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and obtained promises and stopped the mouths of lions. Hey, wouldn't you like to be a part of that crew?
Isn't that a great group to align with? Who quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mocking and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, and they were sawn in half, and they were tested, and were slain with the sword, and wandered about in sheepskin and goatskin, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented.
What a group. What a group. But look at the next line. Verse thirty eight. Of whom The world was not What?
worthy Listen. You walk worthy. And the world won't even be worthy A view.
Well, let's pray together. Father, we come with a great deal of Conviction in our hearts to you. Because we know that Such a high calling demands such a worthy walk. We want to live, walk. Daily lifestyle, conduct in accord with your Standards.
We've chosen to belong to your society. Be a part of your family. We want to be an honor. We want to adorn the doctrine of God. We want to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
We want to silence the critics. We want to live to your praise. We want to live to your glory. We want to conform to your standards. Out of love.
Help us to walk worthy. And so walking transcend this world. and be among those of whom the world was not even worthy. That was true of you, Lord, more than anybody else. And we want to be like you.
Thank you, Father, for The fact that we can walk worthy. As we are strengthened in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. as Christ settles down to be at home in us. sheds in us his incomprehensible love. As we are filled with the fullness of God, we become able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.
Father, we know that thus we can walk worthy.
So may it be. that we commit ourselves to that. And that we study to know the truth so we can live it. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
God bless you. You're listening to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Our current study from Ephesians chapter 4 is titled Walk Worthy. And friend, I want to let you know about a helpful resource that is a perfect complement to John's current radio study. It's our latest study guide, also titled Walk Worthy.
It gives you the outline for each message and all the supporting details. Rich content, page after page, and it's ideal for your personal devotions. It's also excellent curriculum for your midweek Bible study group. The Walk Worthy study guide is reasonably priced and it's available exclusively from Grace to You. You can order yours when you contact us today.
You can place your order at gty.org or call us Monday through Friday, 7.30 a.m. to 4 o'clock p.m. Pacific Time at 80055 Grace. The application questions in each chapter of Walk Worthy will prompt rich discussion and will help you take hold of the Apostle Paul's instructions about living out your calling as a follower of Christ. Again, to order the walk-worthy study guide, go to gty.org or call us at 800-55GRACE.
Now, if John's teaching from his decades of pulpit ministry has encouraged you, maybe you benefited from the lesson you heard today, or maybe you're grateful for the thousands of free resources at the Grace2U website, we'd love to hear from you. You can email your note to letters at gty.org or you can mail a physical letter to Grace2U, Box4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And remember to follow Grace2You on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
Now for the entire Grace TU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. Be back tomorrow as John MacArthur's study called Walk Worthy continues with a look at how you can experience the power of God's Word in your battle against sin. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
